Also I myself to you teach: For one's selves, make friends out of the Mr. Moneybags of that injustice. Because, when he abandons, they might welcome you for themselves into this era's pavilions.

Hidden Meaning:

In this verse, the parable is explained, but it seems that every commentary I have read gets it wrong. It this verse, Jesus accepts the worldly as beneficial to the "self" of this world, the children of this era" or "children of this lifetime". However, this "self" is not our higher being "the children of light".

In this story, who is the "Mr. Moneybags of the misdeed"? The only rich person in the story is not the steward, but his employer. His misdeed was firing the steward based on a slander. How did the steward make friends with him? By publicly doing the act that he was falsely accused of. He did this so he could be invited into the households of other rich men.

All of these ideas are addressed in this verse, This view makes the verse and lesson much easier to understand. The clear connections to the previous verse, Luke 16:8, and the story are lost because of mistranslation. Biblical translation tries to force it into a convoluted statement about the afterlife, which makes little sense.

The Greek word translated as "and" is used as the conjunction "and", but it also is used to add emphasis ("also").

The pronoun "I" is added to add emphasis that he is referring to his own words. It is unnecessary because the first-person indication is part of the verb ending. Jesus sometimes uses it humorously to refer to himself in an exaggerated way, as "I, myself'.

The word translated as "say" is the most common word that means "to say," and "to speak," but it also means "to teach," which seems to be the way Christ uses it more frequently.

The Greek pronoun "to you" here is plural and in the form of an indirect object, "to you", "for you", etc.

The Greek word translated as "Make" has the primary meaning of "making" or producing" something or "causing" or "rendering" as service.

"To yourselves" is a from a special reflexive pronoun that means "himself", "herself," and so on. It is a 3rd person pronoun, himself or themselves, but it works for the first and second person with the sense of "one's self", which doesn't work as well in plural in English. The sense would be "for yourselves." However, in Jesus's view, the "self" is the role you play in this world (see this article).

The term translated as "friends" is the adjective form one of three or four words in Greek for "love". The actual word means "embraced". This is usually described as "brotherly love". It is in the form of an adjective used as a noun. In English, we would say "loved ones".

The Greek preposition translated as "of" means "out of" or "from." In Greek, they use the genitive case instead of a preposition for the types of phrases with usually use with "of." The sense here is "out of" or "from among".

"Mammon" is not from any Greek term, and there is some debate about both its source and its meaning. In interpreting it, we are going to assume Jesus uses words we can understand and uses specific words, like this, not to confuse but to clarify his meaning, and, when possible, to entertain. The Aramaic source words mean "wealth" and "money", but Jesus readily uses the Greek words for wealth and for money, both generally and specifically. If that was his meaning, he would have used those words? There are several suggestions that the term is a personification of the idea of wealth and property like our Mr. Monopoly or, Mr. Moneybags. This seems to work in the context in which this word appears.

"Of unrighteousness" is a Greek noun that means "wrongdoing", "injustice", "a wrongful act," and "offense." Today, we would probably say "injustice". This is the word that was translated as an adjective "unjust" in the previous verse, Luke 16:8. The entire description of this parable as that of the "unjust steward" seems based on a mistranslation as well as a misinterpretation of the story.

The following seems to be the answer the Jesus gives to a question about his first statement.

The word translated as "that" is not the simple demonstrative pronoun, but a word that means "there", "where," and "in order that."

The Greek word translated as "when" introduces a phrase that explains a certain condition so "whenever" or "since."

The key word here is translated as "you fail". The verb is a rare one for Jesus, only used here and one other place. It seems chosen for the humor. The word primarily means to "forsake", "desert", "abandon" not "fail". It is not likely in the second person but the third person. The form could be the second person singular but all second person pronouns here are plural. The sense is "when he forsakes" or "when he deserts". The "he" being the Mr. Moneybags. Again, going back to the story, the Mr. Moneybags deserted the steward.

The word translated as "they may receive" is not a rare one. However, "receive" is a little misleading since it means "receive" in the sense of "welcome." The form, however, is the middle voice, indicating that they are doing it by or for themselves. They are welcoming you out of their own self-interest.

The word translated as "into" means "into" a place, "towards" as a direction, "in regards to" a subject, and "up to" limits in time and measure.

Another key word here is translated as "everlasting". It is an adjective based on the word that means "age" or "eon." It has the sense of "perpetual" or "ageless, but this word is the adjective form of the Greek word mistranslated as "world" in the previous verse's "children of the world", or, more correctly, "the sons of this era" or "sons of this lifetime". Since these tents belong to this era son’s, the “they” who receive you are this sons of this era, who are different than the “sons of light”.

A word that Jesus only uses here is translated as "habitation" (and "dwelling" or "home" in other NT translations). All of these translations miss the point completely. If Christ had wanted to say dwelling or home, he would have used the common words that he has used scores of times that mean "house" or "dwelling". Instead, he uses this word only here. This word means "tent" but it has the specific meaning of a tent used for entertainment, as we would say "a pavilion". In the era, they set up tents as dining pavilions, which, again, refers back to the story and the concern about being invited into the houses of others. However, the word also means a stage for a play, which is particularly funny. It has a double meaning "this era's pavilions" are a "perpetual stage."

Wordplay:

The words translated as "everlasting habitation" has a double meaning of "this era's pavilions", that is, dining and entertainment areas, as a "perpetual stage."

Vocabulary:

Καὶ (conj/adv) "And" is from kai, which is the conjunction joining phrases and clauses, "and," or "but." After words implying sameness, "as" (the same opinion as you). Used in series, joins positive with negative "Not only...but also." Also used to give emphasis, "even", "also," and "just."

ἐγὼ (pron 1st sg masc/fem nom ) "I" is from ego, which is the first person singular pronoun meaning "I". It also means "I at least", "for my part", "indeed," and for myself.

ὑμῖν (pron 2nd pl dat) "To you" is from humas (humas) and humôn (humon), which are the plural forms of su the pronoun of the second person, "you."

τοῦμαμωνᾶ [uncommon] (noun sg masc gen) "Mammon" is from mamonas, which is not from any Greek term. There is some debate about both its source and its meaning. The most accepted view is that it is from Aramaic mamona, "riches" or "wealth," probably from Hebrew mamon, "security", "that which is trusted," or "deposit" or Hebrew matmon, "treasure." The term comes possibly from Akkardian "mimmu" meaning "property." It has also been suggested that mammon was the name of a Syriac god of wealth.

Most Recent Question

How is The Art of War useful outside of the fields of business and war?

Answer:

The Art of War is useful in any area in which competition takes place. Since competition takes place in every area in which people are compared to one another, this includes every aspect of life.

I personally have written books apply Sun Tzu’s work line-by-line from areas as diverse as sports, romance, and parenting teens. I have also done a version for teens on managing the problems of growing up.

Sun Tzu’s big idea is that all competition is a form of comparison and the human brain works in a certain way when making comparisons and choosing a course of action. The first part of...

About Christ's Humor

Spoken Words

Christ's words were spoken not written Greek. To understand the differences, see this article.

About the Work

I started this project over a decade ago. The initial goal was to satisfy my own curiosity about how the original Greek of Jesus's words was translated into English comparing it to my work in translating ancient Chinese.

This site does not promote any religious point of view about Christianity. I purposely use nonreligious sources for Greek translation. My goal is simply to identify how Jesus used words. His use of Greek words somewhat unique since his words were spoken, not written.

The range of quality of the articles on this site reflects that it is a personal site, not a commercial one. No one proofreads my work. Some articles are over a decade old when I knew much less ancient Greek. Matthew articles are best since I have updated them all at least once. The ones in Mark are the oldest and poorest. Luke is not yet complete.

About this Site

If you would like to help, please report typos by selecting problem text (not more than 20 characters) and pressing Ctrl + Enter. Would you to offer feedback on translation? Please contact at gagliardi.gary at gmail dot com.